British Sitcom History Podcast

Part 2 of our look at just the tip of the long-running Last of the Summer Wine. We finish our analysis of the episode, marvel at the technical set dressing of a church, and take a closer look at the work of Michael Bates.

This week we begin an epic journey into the world's longest running sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine. We'll start by looking at just the first two series, after which Michael Bates left.

Here, we talk about the meandering and pointless nature of the first series, and we get a closer look at the careers of Peter Sallis and Bill Owen.

This month we've been looking at Ideal so what better opportunity to take a look back at an early acting appearance from Johnny Vegas in the infamously bad Sex Lives of the Potato Men.

Co-starring Mackenzie Crook, hot off The Office, and featuring surprisingly large supporting roles from Dominic Coleman and Mark Gatiss, this film is also packed with other Britcom cameos. It's also pretty crap and we get to make fun of it.

This week we continue our in-depth investigation into what exactly Ideal is and what it became as it carried on for several years. We also look at the career of Johnny Vegas and try and parse the blurred line between comedian and comedy character. And to top it all we have a report from the Ideal 25th Anniversary live stage show, which Allen went to see last year.

This week we find ourselves in the 21st Century to take a detailed look at cult favourite Ideal. Written by Graham Duff and starring Johnny Vegas, Ideal enjoyed a surprisingly long run for a slightly weird little show with more interest in music than story structure.

This is definitely one of the more interesting shows we've looked at and it sparks off discussions on the nature of art versus commercialism. Enjoy!